History
(stolen from @host excellent report from 2013)
When Kelenfold Power Plant started generating electricity in 1914, it was one of the most advanced plants of its day-though it was modernized and expanded several times since then to serve the changing energy demands of the surrounding districts. The buildings, designed and built by Kalman Reichl and Virgil Borbiro (Bierbauer) between 1927 and 1929, are protected by law, which means they'll never be demolished. Sadly, in this case this means that they aren't being touched at all, even for basic maintenance, so their condition has clearly worsened during the past few years. Only production companies benefit from this kind of perpetual decay: Several apocalyptic movie scenes and music videos have been filmed at Kelenfold.
The explore
Obviously you don't go to Budapest or Hungary without visiting Kelenfold PS so naturally we planned to give it a cheeky visit whilst on holiday doing 'normal' holiday stuff
Twas' early Tuesday morning, the day before travelling back to the UK, we woke up early after an evening drinking in the ruin bars and thought right today is the day we get to see this incredible art deco control room!
We pulled up in a little car park and I noticed something wasn't quite right... a white tent? 5 different white trailers? oh a 'STAFF' hi viz member at some gates? a catering van.... ermm what's going on here? As noted in the history above, the control room has been used in movies, commercials and netflix series - the latest being Russian Doll on netflix as @mockney reject had mentioned to me after seeing my instagram story.
Anyhow we tried our luck and got to the entry point, threw our bags in and as I popped my head in I heard voices, loud as if they were next to us and said nope there's people in the building and I guess they'll be in the CR too... so we ditched it and fought our way back out. Upon arriving back to the car @Esoteric Eric said look up there, there are people in the windows walking inside where the CR is. So we left with the plan on coming back for 5pm when most people finish work for the day.
4:30 back in the spot a cherry picker with people on the roof ? I took out my 600mm lens and started taking photos of them trying to figure out what on earth was going on (wish I didn't delete these images lol)
5pm ... oh people are leaving the building now! cherry picker is bringing these people back down. Maybe we'll be able to try now
5:30pm .... how many bloody more people need to leave ... 5 vans have left come on how many more
6pm ... now they're just taking the pi** more people and vans leaving
6:30pm ... gates still open, vans still inside but we see a van saying 'film crew' finally heading out
6:45pm... christ the van isn't leaving but surely they'll be gone soon
screw it just do it
@Esoteric Eric went to check out the entry again as I sat on my arse in some bushes wondering what on earth was taking so long. 15 minutes later he emerges and we make a run for it
through darkness and dusty floors and spaces we finally made it and yes .... it was a bloody film set
due to this we weren't able to see much more due to there being vans, cars and security next to every window and entrance
nevertheless we made it and it was still SO special!!
rumour has it that mel gibson is actually filming in it so that would have been awkward if we were to have gotten caught
PICSSS below
hope you enjoy as much as I enjoyed seeing this place
Thanks for looking UD xo
(stolen from @host excellent report from 2013)
When Kelenfold Power Plant started generating electricity in 1914, it was one of the most advanced plants of its day-though it was modernized and expanded several times since then to serve the changing energy demands of the surrounding districts. The buildings, designed and built by Kalman Reichl and Virgil Borbiro (Bierbauer) between 1927 and 1929, are protected by law, which means they'll never be demolished. Sadly, in this case this means that they aren't being touched at all, even for basic maintenance, so their condition has clearly worsened during the past few years. Only production companies benefit from this kind of perpetual decay: Several apocalyptic movie scenes and music videos have been filmed at Kelenfold.
The explore
Obviously you don't go to Budapest or Hungary without visiting Kelenfold PS so naturally we planned to give it a cheeky visit whilst on holiday doing 'normal' holiday stuff
Twas' early Tuesday morning, the day before travelling back to the UK, we woke up early after an evening drinking in the ruin bars and thought right today is the day we get to see this incredible art deco control room!
We pulled up in a little car park and I noticed something wasn't quite right... a white tent? 5 different white trailers? oh a 'STAFF' hi viz member at some gates? a catering van.... ermm what's going on here? As noted in the history above, the control room has been used in movies, commercials and netflix series - the latest being Russian Doll on netflix as @mockney reject had mentioned to me after seeing my instagram story.
Anyhow we tried our luck and got to the entry point, threw our bags in and as I popped my head in I heard voices, loud as if they were next to us and said nope there's people in the building and I guess they'll be in the CR too... so we ditched it and fought our way back out. Upon arriving back to the car @Esoteric Eric said look up there, there are people in the windows walking inside where the CR is. So we left with the plan on coming back for 5pm when most people finish work for the day.
4:30 back in the spot a cherry picker with people on the roof ? I took out my 600mm lens and started taking photos of them trying to figure out what on earth was going on (wish I didn't delete these images lol)
5pm ... oh people are leaving the building now! cherry picker is bringing these people back down. Maybe we'll be able to try now
5:30pm .... how many bloody more people need to leave ... 5 vans have left come on how many more
6pm ... now they're just taking the pi** more people and vans leaving
6:30pm ... gates still open, vans still inside but we see a van saying 'film crew' finally heading out
6:45pm... christ the van isn't leaving but surely they'll be gone soon
screw it just do it
@Esoteric Eric went to check out the entry again as I sat on my arse in some bushes wondering what on earth was taking so long. 15 minutes later he emerges and we make a run for it
through darkness and dusty floors and spaces we finally made it and yes .... it was a bloody film set
due to this we weren't able to see much more due to there being vans, cars and security next to every window and entrance
nevertheless we made it and it was still SO special!!
rumour has it that mel gibson is actually filming in it so that would have been awkward if we were to have gotten caught
PICSSS below
hope you enjoy as much as I enjoyed seeing this place
Thanks for looking UD xo
